I was talking about your grill! Fillets are important, for sure.
It looks great!
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 45
My VIN: 6895
I was talking about your grill! Fillets are important, for sure.
It looks great!
I was playing around with the model and sometimes those features start going wonky so I suppress them. The grill has a slight curve on the downward slope, but I couldn't get it to work on my model the way I made it. The slats(?) are patterned off of one of the edges. The pattern quit working when that edge was curved.
I'd like to scan a binnacle if anyone has one available. I want to scan it without the foam and vinyl. That way anyone could print it have have it upholstered wherever they like.
I started drawing a binnacle up in CAD some time back, as it was my first delve into mesh modelling/sculpting, but I soon realised that hardly anyone is actually missing a binnacle and with the quality of the re-covering that can be done it didn't seem viable and as I had other more pressing projects I parked it.
But I would be very interested to hear what comes of your project.
James
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 45
My VIN: 6895
I have a perfect original binnacle on my car with no cracks or flaws. I haven’t had to do any dash work but if there is an easy way to get it out I can scan it up and make a 3D master.
I just hear it’s a bit of a huge pain to get it out of there.
Location: Southern MA
Posts: 973
My VIN: 767 (3.0L EFI/EDIS)
You take out the knee pads, and then It’s four small nuts to release the binnacle. This basically requires laying on your back under the dash. Before you lift it too much you’ll have to disconnect the speedometer cable (taking the cable off the lambda counter first gives you more room to work) and the wiring harness edge connector, which can be tricky to get to. I’ve removed mine twice now, and it wasn’t that bad...
— Joe
I don't want a perfect one. I want the base part which is then built up with foam and vinyl. People could print it out then have it covered. If i scan a covered one, then it would end up thicker once you put the vinyl on.
The plastic piece that goes around it would be good though. Mine was broken when it got recovered locally. I'm sure that piece is damaged way more often than the binnacle.
Well my sales are getting to good. Last year my sales doubled and this year looks like it will double again. But I don't think I can keep up with building that many units. So I was thinking the most time consuming thing is potting the relays. So I was thinking maybe I can try to 3D print a cover for some of my relays. I'm getting good at design layout and it only took me about one hour to finish my first test file and another two hours to print it. This test print was to test how much my 3D print will flex to make the latching design which locks the boards into the cover.
Well this first print is much to tight to press the circuit board over the little latches I designed.
I also will need to test the strength. I don't want the cover to pull off when your pulling the relay out of the socket.
I also need to test the high current relays for heat build up. This 3D material is a pretty good heat insulator so I have to test heat build up.
Not sure if this will become a usable solution to speed up my build times. But unless my sales slow down, I know I will clean out my inventory way before I can rebuild it.
Dave M vin 03572
http://dm-eng.weebly.com/
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 45
My VIN: 6895
I for one appreciate it since I just ordered a whole bunch of those parts from you.
My second test print the board pressed in no problem. I was not thinking about the flex above the board and on the first print had that area to thick. Of course this will require new smaller boards to compensate for the thickness of the cover. A big problem is that one pin closest to the socket mounting tab. The OEM sockets don't give much clearance there. I replaced all my sockets with new ones that moved the relays further away from the mounting side. I liked the idea of higher temperature rated sockets and the better placement. These new socket mount the same as OEM but the slides are not compatible with OEM sockets so it's all or nothing for replacement.
All except my hot start relay use two circuit boards. The hot start with only 3 pins gave me enough room to place the components on one side of the one circuit board. So I can 3D print my covers to latch on the top circuit board and the lower circuit board can have a very thin thickness where it sits inside the cover.
Now I will put 5 new pins into a socket and see if the case has any damage pulling the relay out. New pins are very tight the first time they are used. You really need a lot of force to press in the relay the first time.
Last edited by Bitsyncmaster; 03-01-2020 at 08:56 AM.
Dave M vin 03572
http://dm-eng.weebly.com/